07 December 2014 The Digital Tactician On A Digital Strategist’s Shoulders

In my last post I attempted to answer the question What Does A Digital Strategist Do?

Some readers debated that the role definition was too narrow. They argued a Digital Strategist’s scope should include either digital creative or digital comms planning.

I still disagree – a pure-play Digital Strategist should not be more than what I defined in my last post. Of course, in this market those additional skills are incredibly handy as there aren’t many agencies that are big enough to take on someone who works only within the strictest definition of the word “strategic”.

However these conversations did spark a thought about another area Digital Strategists often play in. If you were to separate it into its own job title you might call it a Digital Tactician. Someone with extremely strong knowledge of platforms and channels who can assist in digital implementation. Their role would be to work with Digital Producers to ensure campaigns and projects leverage technology in the most effective way possible.

Rory Sutherland thinks these are so impact that there should be a name for small things that have big impact. Some digital specific tactical examples might include:

• Implementing UTM tags to measure and optimise media performance
• Using a ‘click to reveal’ phone number to measure leads (eg. 1800 123 …)
• Ensuring you website has a homescreen icon for iOS
• Leveraging annotations on YouTube to drive conversions
• Registering your business on Google My Business

Again I don’t believe this should be in the scope of a Digital Strategist’s role,  but it often is due to how closely they relate.

Firstly, it goes hand-in-hand with doing digital strategy. Some recommendations might be tactical in nature, or are required to feed into and support broader strategic ones. Secondly, the way many agencies are structured, there’s likely no other resource who is in a better position to have this knowledge.

You won’t see the job title Digital Tactician any time soon, particularly as most other roles start to naturally build these skills. There’s also probably not an agency in Australia that would be able to support this role full time. But there certainly is value in being able to make recommendations like the dot points above to enhance a digital project or campaign.